‘New tax on bank transactions a tyrannical act’

Karachi
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has rejected the imposition of 0.6 percent of withholding tax (WHT) on transaction of Rs100,000, terming it a tyrannical act of the PML-N government.
In a statement issued on Monday, Sindh General Secretary Senator Taj Haider and PPP Karachi President Syed Najmi Alam and MPAs Dr Sohrab Khan Sarki and Syed Nasir Shah of the PPP media cell said that the PML-N government was mad in love with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) like a “Majnoo” and taking steps for an unprecedented boost in price-hike and poverty on dictation of the fund.
They said that since day one, the federal government had adopted anti-masses policies and deliberately deprived the people of the country of the benefits of low POL prices in international market as the PMLN government did not pass on the due relief to the masses.
The PPP leaders said the federal government inflicted agony onto the masses in the holy month of Ramazan through failing to check the unannounced blackouts in Sindh and inflated electricity bills, while in addition to it, also failed to curb the profiteering and loot.
The media cell added that at the behest of the IMF, the government was imposing 0.6 percent withholding tax and asked the PMLN to stop begging for votes in elections if it would work for the appeasement of the fund against the voters.
The statement said the PPP had always played a pivotal role for protecting the democratic system in the country and once when the democracy was about to be toppled as a result of Islamabad sit-ins by the ‘Umpire Party’, it was the PPP that saved the democracy.
“However, when it would come to the interest of the people of the country, the PPP would stand beside the masses.”
The PPP said that the protest by the traders’ associations across the country, especially in Karachi, was a clear message to the government that the masses and the traders were fed up with the government and its policies of crushing the masses, trade and economy of the country.
They said the PPP assure the masses and the traders of its all-out support against any injustice being committed to them.